AndrewDeas
New Member
Hello all,
First of all, I will try to keep this as brief as I can. My russian was gifted to me last December by my parents, they bought him from a vendor that I have never heard of and upon some inspection of their website, I am almost positive that he is wild caught. When I first got him he was a voracious eater, a lively specimen and just a joy. Recently however, he has not been his usual self and I am getting really worried. He has been more lethargic and has been much less interested in food, he will still eat but only every other day or so, and only the stuff he has come to really like, like romaine lettuce, some squash, the occasional corn kernel of corn. He won't touch the dark leafy greens anymore and he used to eat his entire bowl full. I believe that there could potentially be two things wrong with him:
(1) I was told that the goal is to get a russian on tort pellets but mine would never touch them. I got a wood turtle earlier this summer and out of curiosity I feed my russian some turtle pellets and he ate them. At the time I thought "great! at least he is eating some sort of pellet". I did not realize how much protein was packed into those pellets and how bad those could be for his kidneys. I sprinkled those on top of his normal food, the usual dark leafy greens, for a few months before I realized what I was doing. Also, I have noticed of late that his urates have a tinge of pink to them, I can't see any pink in his feces. This has me very nervous, could he be going through some sort of kidney problem because of the high protein diet that I fed him for a few months? Ok, on to the second thing that could be wrong with him.
(2) When he first stopped eating, I noticed two days later that his heat bulb had gone out, I have a double bulb fixture and the UVB was enough light to make me think that both were on. As soon as I realized the heat bulb was out, I immediately went to the store and put another heat bulb in but he has not been eating normally since. He also has since been digging holes throughout his enclosure, something he never used to do. So he's been more lethargic only in the sense that he hasn't been coming out to bask and eat but I hear him digging away throughout the day. So, especially given that he is wild caught, could he just be trying to hibernate? If so, should I research how to do that full on or are there any tricks to get them out of that mindset? Or perhaps is the problem a combination of both?
Thank you so much in advance for any input or advice!
First of all, I will try to keep this as brief as I can. My russian was gifted to me last December by my parents, they bought him from a vendor that I have never heard of and upon some inspection of their website, I am almost positive that he is wild caught. When I first got him he was a voracious eater, a lively specimen and just a joy. Recently however, he has not been his usual self and I am getting really worried. He has been more lethargic and has been much less interested in food, he will still eat but only every other day or so, and only the stuff he has come to really like, like romaine lettuce, some squash, the occasional corn kernel of corn. He won't touch the dark leafy greens anymore and he used to eat his entire bowl full. I believe that there could potentially be two things wrong with him:
(1) I was told that the goal is to get a russian on tort pellets but mine would never touch them. I got a wood turtle earlier this summer and out of curiosity I feed my russian some turtle pellets and he ate them. At the time I thought "great! at least he is eating some sort of pellet". I did not realize how much protein was packed into those pellets and how bad those could be for his kidneys. I sprinkled those on top of his normal food, the usual dark leafy greens, for a few months before I realized what I was doing. Also, I have noticed of late that his urates have a tinge of pink to them, I can't see any pink in his feces. This has me very nervous, could he be going through some sort of kidney problem because of the high protein diet that I fed him for a few months? Ok, on to the second thing that could be wrong with him.
(2) When he first stopped eating, I noticed two days later that his heat bulb had gone out, I have a double bulb fixture and the UVB was enough light to make me think that both were on. As soon as I realized the heat bulb was out, I immediately went to the store and put another heat bulb in but he has not been eating normally since. He also has since been digging holes throughout his enclosure, something he never used to do. So he's been more lethargic only in the sense that he hasn't been coming out to bask and eat but I hear him digging away throughout the day. So, especially given that he is wild caught, could he just be trying to hibernate? If so, should I research how to do that full on or are there any tricks to get them out of that mindset? Or perhaps is the problem a combination of both?
Thank you so much in advance for any input or advice!
